Well...this is one heck of a big chapter! Though, don't take it for granted! I just had a big spurt of creative and imaginative energy - and this is the result :)

This story is set 2 years after the fire, which I decided to set in 1884 - so my story is set in 1886. Wow, I can count! Anyways, there is this American band that come from the year 2007. It is a group of 6 people that have just come together but the band is still unsigned. They somehow get mysteriously transported back to the year 1886. To top all of that, they end up in a foreign country...you don't even need to guess where that would be:)

Now that they are stuck in this new time zone and country, the only thing they can do is try and earn money in order to live. The now restored Opera Garnier (formerly known as The Opera Populaire) serves as the ideal place for them to live and show their musical talents. The band members; Steve, Mark, Eddie, Laura, Hannah and Rachelle form an even closer friendship bond in order to stick together in this (for them) strange new world (or old, if you think about it).

Not that long after their talents are recognised, do this strange group of people catch the attention of The Opera Ghost himself! Of course he is still alive and well - but still bitter about the past events in his life and is still possessive of his Opera house and how it should be run. Everyone thinks he had died in the fire that fateful night, but they are sorely mistaken.

There is one person in particular who catches The Phantom's eye the most. Rachelle. At first for her limitless talents, but his admiration and curiosity of her gradually grows into something much, much more...ENJOY!


The Phantom of Rock

You may very well ask how the hell this happened. Why did this happen? Well, to be perfectly honest, I'm no wiser than you. I haven't a clue what I'm doing here or how this even occurred. However, what I do know is that it was done for a reason. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what this reason is but I refuse to believe that this kind of thing happened just for the sake of it. You want to know what happened? You might think I'm lying, and I wouldn't blame you, because at first I couldn't even believe it myself.

Time travel. Many people have pondered over the possibility of this being able to be achieved. And many have given up on the theory. However, now I know it is possible. I just never intended for it to happen, that's the problem. I don't know how to get back. This made me realise that there is obviously a much greater power than any man could ever imagine that was controlling our destiny right now. Something or someone had brought us here, and I am determined to find out whom. Even if it will mean the death of me. Maybe there is a God, or some other superior being who had created mankind and who had sent us here. But for now, I just don't know.

However, I am not the only person who has been brought here. The whole of the band came with me too. All of them as confused as me. I wondered why a rock band from the 21st century would be taken here, back in time. We are still yet to try and find out what exact year we are now in, but we are all certain that it is definitely the 19th century. It was the strangest thing. The last thing I remember was all of us staying at my apartment for a relaxing night in, eating popcorn and watching The Phantom of the Opera, much to the chagrin of Eddie who hates it (for some weird reason, who wouldn't love it?). Then there was a blinding flash of light and the room felt like it was spinning, spinning faster and faster and then there was the sensation of falling. Then THUMP! We all landed on a hard cobbled stone street. Thanking god that it was pitch black and that no one was around, otherwise we would have caught a lot of unwanted attention.

Now, here we are. Having no idea which country we are in. The name of the town or city. Most important of all, what exact year, date and time it now is. I have never felt any more completely lost in my entire life. Not even the feeling of being stranded in the middle of a desert would come anything near to this.

It took us a while to get our bearings and to realise what had just transpired. One by one we stood up with much difficulty considering what had happened before as it felt like we had fallen many feet, and the rough cobbled street had done nothing to help that fall. I was quite surprised that none of us had been hurt or injured! Still recovering from the shock, we were in no condition to talk just yet. Instead we took in our surroundings, and what we saw left us gawking. We knew it could be no trick - everything looked too real.

"What the fuck is going on here? We were just watching a movie!" Mark exclaimed breathlessly as if he had been running a marathon for hours.

"Well, thanks for stating the obvious, Mr. Smarty pants!" Eddie mocked and laughed at Mark's expression of confusion and disappointment. He always revelled in the moments when he could make fun out of Mark - something that I have never understood the point of.

"Hey! Unlike you, I was actually interested in what would happen to the Phantom at the end of the movie!" Mark folded his arms in defence. Me, and the rest of the band stood back knowing all too well not to get involved in this situation, especially when it concerned these two. However, I knew I had to stop this before it went too far like the many other times for all of our sakes. I just was having difficulty in trying to find the right time to butt in.

"We don't find out what happens to the Phantom at the end of the movie you dumb ass! Anyway, he's not real! You're such a kid-"

"Alright, that's enough! This is neither the time nor the place to start arguing. You two should know better and Eddie, stop being such a provocative fucker! Has it not occurred to you that falling out with each other is the last thing that we should be doing right now? We haven't got the foggiest where we are, let alone by the looks of things, what year it is!" After my outburst, no one dared argue with me, even the likes of Eddie. I wasn't usually the one for shouting, but when I did, people knew not to push me any further.

"Now that you've calmed down, we can look at the bigger picture. First things first, where are we?" There was a long silence. Everyone glanced around wearingly and then back at me again. Then Eddie in his usual sarcastic tone remarked,

"Well, I was kind of hoping that you would know."

"If she knew, do you think that she would ask?" Hannah piped up from behind Steve and Laura who had remained mute during the whole ordeal, still in disbelief over what had happened. Then I noticed Steve was looking down the street and a piece of paper that was fluttering around due to the slight breeze. It was blowing towards us slowly and Steve walked ahead to pick it up. From where I was standing, it looked like the loose front page of a newspaper.

They all gathered round Steve to take a closer look. I heard several gasps and incoherent mutterings, which did nothing to settle my curiosity and I started to get anxious and impatient.

"What is it you guys?" Steve was still holding the paper in his hands and was the only one who looked up at me. Everyone else had their heads in their hands or had sat down at the edge of the pavement, their faces pale with shock. This was when my heart started to beat faster and I stepped closer to him preparing myself for the worst, for what I was about to see.

Steve extended his arm and hesitantly handed the piece of paper over to me. Looking down I read out the title,

Le Parisien Temps

du dimanche 16 Novembre 1886

I stood there, not uttering one word for what felt like an eternity. I couldn't and didn't believe it at first but as I kept on rereading the title of the paper and the date, it began to dawn on me that it was true. I even pinched myself in the arm just to make sure that this wasn't some weird dream.

"Ouch!" Everyone's head whipped round to face me. I could feel my face flush and I forced on a weary smile to hide my discomfort. Letting out a nervous laugh, I spoke once more half to them, and half to myself,

"Rum, I suppose that answers two of our questions. We're in 19th century Paris..." I glanced away from them feeling uneasy and slightly sick in the stomach. Too much was happening at the same time.

"Paris?" Mark asked confused.

"Yeah Paris you dumb ass! As in Paris, France - voulez-vous couchez avec moi, ce soir? Get the picture? Actually, to give you more of an idea, the story of The Phantom of the Opera was based her-"

"Oi! I know where Paris is! And I'd rather not sleep with you, but thanks for the offer." He added dryly. "Anyway, I was just surprised that's all. I mean, last time I remember, we were in Rachelle's flat in New York!" Eddie was just about to retort when Laura stepped in between the two.

"Yeah, it's not everyday that you suddenly end up on the other side of the world in a different time zone."

"Exactly, but this could all just be one silly hoax..." Mark suggested. "I must say, it's a very convincing one though."

"We can't know for certain whether this is real or not because there are no people out. If we could ask someone-" Eddie cut Steve off,

"-I think we would have to ask quite a few people. If this is all a 'hoax' then the people would be too, wouldn't they?" There was a pause as all of us contemplated what had just been discussed - to try and find a solution. Then I spoke up again,

"Well, we will just have to hope that they will be telling the truth. It's the only thing we can do." Everyone nodded, but Eddie the skeptic still had his brows bunched up in a frown. "Eddie... please, we need to be together on this one." At moments like these, I couldn't help imagine Eddie as 'Grumpy' from the story 'Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs'. He could be so stubborn, but inside I knew that he had a kind heart. All my friends relied on me to calm him down when he got worked up. They thought I could tame the wildest of tempers - but thankfully, he was not being as bad as he could be tonight.

"Okay, whatever..." I smiled at him to try and clear the tense air around us. Eddie just rolled his eyes and focused his attention on something else in the distance. I took this as a good sign and left it at that.

"Urm, I don't see any people about yet. I mean, it's night time...we might have to wait a while." Hannah said whilst shivering because of the cold that was slowly starting to bite through our clothing. I then felt someone elbowing me and looked up. It was Eddie with an inquisitive look in his eyes.

"Rachelle, look over there." I did as he said and saw to my right only a few feet away, a carriage with two horses tied up in front of it. What I thought was odd was that it was just standing right in the middle of the cobbled street. Even though I had no experience about where people parked their 'vehicles' in the 19th century, I was sure that they didn't just leave them in the middle of the road.

"That's weird..." I thought out loud. "It must have been there all along. Why didn't we notice it before?"

"I suppose we were all quite preoccupied in finding out where the hell we are." Eddie jokily explained. I nodded and chuckled despite the fact that we were not in the most amusing of situations.

Looking back up to the carriage, I felt an unknown force pull me towards it to see what it contained - if anything. Behind me, I heard the beginnings of another petty argument between Mark and Eddie, and the other's attempts to try and intervene. Only Steve felt the curiosity, and like me approached to take a closer look at the carriage.

The horses stirred and both leant their heads forwards towards me as a form of some kind of greeting. I held out my hands, palms downwards, for them to sniff and decide whether I was to be trusted. I had been taught to do this from my mother when we used to go to the stables in the country to take care of Marmy, our stallion. It was important to show that you meant no harm, as they were very strong animals with a will of iron even after being broken, and they would not hesitate to cause any damage if they thought that you were a threat. Not all horses are like this, usually they are very well natured but one can never be too sure. Personally I preferred the wild horses.

I heard the horses snort and nuzzle their noises in my hands and knew that I had made two more friends. Smiling, I looked up at Steve and motioned to him to do the same. He just stood hesitantly behind me, casting wary glances at the mares. It was then that I realised he was indeed scared of horses. I couldn't help but stifle a laugh, which didn't really help his uneasiness.

"I thought that you weren't afraid of anything!" Steve frowned and rested both his hands on his hips.

"Well, I didn't say that I'm not scared of everything... it's just, all of you lot made that assumption because I happen not to believe in ghosts and stuff..." There was a pause as he thought how to justify his argument, "...and I'm not scared of the dark, unlike some people!" I quirked my eye brow and scoffed at his last comment.

"Are you implying that I'm afraid of the dark? I think you've mistaken me for Hannah and Laura. Just because I'm a girl, doesn't mean-"

"-I didn't mean it like that! Please don't go into that feminist phase again! I already had to suffer yesterday, by hearing you ranting on for thirty minutes about 'prejudice and equality'." He said exasperated.

"There was a reason behind that! And feminists are much worse." I argued, pointing an accusing finger in his direction.

"I only suggested that I should help you carry a few very heavy boxes of yours into your new apartment. Then before I knew it, I was given a lecture about how women aren't all weak, blah blah...I hadn't even thought of it that way. I was trying to help out a friend." I was just about to fire back when I realised he was right, and gave in.

"Alright, alright!" I held my hands up in the air, showing my surrender. "Maybe, sometimes I jump the gun a bit. I'm sorry."

"Good. I'm glad we got that settled. See, your not always right you know." I shot him a deathly glare. Even the horses behind me tossed their heads back and forth threateningly and Steve took a few steps back.

"Don't push it!" Steve just gave me an innocent puppy eyed look and threw me a charming toothy grin. Knowing this look all too well, I sighed and rolled my eyes at him.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist." I slapped him playfully on the arm and turned around to pat the horses again.

"Why don't you just come up nearer to them? They won't hurt you - as long as I'm here." I laughed. However, Steve was not amused.

"When I was a kid...I witnessed an accident and I've been afraid of horses ever since." I turned my head around and saw his eyes pleading at me not to go on about it. Whatever had happened to him had obviously been very traumatic, so I gave him a sympathetic smile and changed the subject.

"Let's see what's in here then." I said as I indicated to the carriage. Steve let out a sigh of relief and carefully walked round me to get past the horses and inspect their burden. After giving the horses a final pat on their noses, I followed him to the carriage door window and took a peek inside. Now here came another unexpected surprise.

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" I asked shakily to Steve who was too dumbfounded to speak, but just nodded his head, confirming that I had not just lost my mind.

Inside, the carriage was packed right up to the ceiling with all of our equipment. When I say all of our equipment, I mean our guitars, amplifiers, laptops, speakers, recording studio equipment; the full drum set...everything. Even a few of my friends' possessions were in there that they had taken to stay at my flat for the night. It was as if we were on a tour but had a horse drawn carriage rather than a couch. I was surprised that only two horses were attached to it. I thought that surely all of our stuff would be too much of a burden for them.

"Steve, if passers by see what's in here...goodness knows what they will think!" Steve, still shocked, took a while to register what I had said. When he did, he looked around the window in the door of the carriage to see if there were any shutters. Then he opened the door and found inside that there was a small brown blind that could be tugged down using a piece of string that hung off it with a round metal handle attached. He grapped hold of the handle and pulled the blind down and closed the door, checking that it was down far enough that no one could see through. After he had figured this out, I did the same on the other side of the carriage where there was another door.

"I'm surprised that none of the stuff fell out when we opened the doors." Steve muttered. "This is just too weird. Rachelle...what do you think the meaning of this is? We travel back in time, to a different continent, the entire band is here and with all of our equipment! It just doesn't make sense." Not knowing and not wanting to contemplate the question asked, I tried to change the subject.

"If you think about it, the world altogether is rather strange, isn't it? Actually, what is weird? And what is normal? Why-"

"Rachelle! Try and be serious here." I inhaled sharply. I hated thinking about such deep questions. When I started thinking about the reasons behind why things happen, I usually find it hard to think of anything else. It was suffocating because there seemed to be no real answer, so why try and answer this one?

"I don't know what the meaning of this is. You might as well ask what the meaning of life is! I've always said that there is no meaning to life, so just live it. Maybe we should do the same here." Steve was silent for a few minutes and then spoke again.

"I suppose your right. Let's not think of these questions...for now anyway." I nodded. It was then that I became aware of the others again behind us. Turning around, I indicated to Steve to follow me.

"We'll have to tell the rest what we've found!" I said excitingly, trying to force those troublesome questions out of my mind. As we approached them again, I heard Eddie speak urgently.

"...Why don't we knock on someone's door now? I don't want to wait out here in the cold for the sun to come up and people to come out. That could still be in ages yet. Then we can force our way through their house, tie them up on a chair and force answers out of them. We can threaten them if we need to - you never know whether they'll be telling the truth or not!"

"Eddie!" He jumped about 3 inches off the ground at hearing my voice and I couldn't help but chuckle a little. Then I tried to resume sounding serious, "That's quite enough. We are not going to go knocking down someone's door and torture them!"

"Well, it's not as if we would inflict pain...just threaten-"

"-That's out of the question! We don't want them reporting us to the police and get caught and accused for...whatever they might accuse us of!" Now that had shut him up. Eddie had not had a very good experience with police in his past. No doubt, he didn't want to relive anything from it. This made me wonder if the French 'gendarmes' in 1886 would be any different. Then Steve carried on,

"You've all seen that carriage up there?" He pointed his finger up the street and everyone nodded, thinking it was nothing of any significance. "Well, inside is our...our equipment."

"What!" Hannah exclaimed whilst her hand flew to her mouth.

"You heard him. It's got all our stuff in it. Everything!" I said.

"What do you mean...'all of our equipment'? That's impossible!"

"Mark, it's got your bass guitar in it...and mine, and Laura's. Eddie's drum kit is in there too, including Hannah's laptop and sound recording equipment, you name it. It's all there. And don't ask me why!" As I had predicted, everyone was absolutely mortified. The same as Steve and I had been before.

"Shush, you guys! We don't want to wake anybody up and attract any unwanted attention. We're being far too loud." Hannah advised wisely. I must admit, that I myself had been very loud - but who could blame us? I was surprised that no one had fainted yet!


So there is the first chapter! Please R&R as any constructive criticism may be helpful for me:) Or, you could just R&R to say nice things - that would also be greatly appreciated, teehee :)